Passing For Normal

After a couple of years worth of waffling and wishing and much curiosity, I finally sprang for the $100 to send a sample of my DNA to 23andMe.com for analysis. (Which, it turns out, was poor timing financially, but there was no way to know that August was going to be the month when essential electronics would decide to die, one after another. So it goes.)

In any event, the results are in, and while I'm still finding my way around the sprawling website, I'm having lots of fun. I was most interested in the health info; my cousin, who's our family genealogist, is curious about the ancestry side of things.

For starters, I am utterly unsurprised that I am from a long line of Pale Persons. I am pastel. I am pasty. At times even blinding. Blame those northern latitudes for the sad lack of melanin.

99.8% European
Northern European
9.1% Scandinavian
4.2% French and German
2.5% Finnish
1.7% British and Irish
73.5% Nonspecific Northern European
0.4% Eastern European
8.4% Nonspecific European
0.2% Unassigned

And an estimated 2.8% of my DNA is from Neanderthals, which puts me at 71st percentile, somewhat higher than average globally, but right there with the 2.7% average for people of European ancestry -- which makes sense, since that's where the Neanderthals were hangin' out.

I'm pleased to know that I do not have elevated risk for most of the scarier health issues I might have been concerned about. But then again, they say I don't have elevated risk for alcoholism or obesity, so what do they know? (Yeah, yeah, nature, nurture, environment, yadda. I know. But it would have been pleasantly gratifying to be able to blame my DNA. *g*)

Anyway, I'm having a lot of fun exploring it. I've already been messaged by one distant relative asking if I cared to explore connections. (Allowing such messages is entirely optional; I opted in, but you don't have to.)

Have any of y'all tried it? Learn anything noteworthy? Have tips for how to make the most of the website and features?